Friday, August 31, 2018

How I Changed My Mind About Evolution

Great book review by CMI:
How I Changed My Mind About Evolution is a regrettable, 200-page survey of theological abdication. Editors Applegate and Stump1 are both staff scientists at the Templeton-funded organization BioLogos, whose mission is to persuade people that microbes-to-man evolution is both true and compatible with Christianity (p. 16).2 This book is intended as a means toward that end, but it does not attempt to reach its goal by setting out a purely rational case that resolves the conflicts. Instead, it presents personal stories—twenty-five short testimonies from people who claim to have reconciled evolution and faith to their own satisfaction.
While How I Changed My Mind will likely be persuasive to some, it ultimately fails to show that theistic evolution is an acceptable option for Bible believers. The book’s attempts at reconciliation are inadequate, and there are several severe problems for theistic evolution which the book’s contributors largely ignore...keep reading

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Is the Bible Enough?

Thought this was good...
Sure, the Bible Is True, but Is it Enough?
Over the last fifty years American evangelicals have been forced to address the question of biblical authority. In the early 1970s North American evangelicalism came dangerously close to theological apostasy. Many leaders had begun to drift away from their historic commitment to the authority of Scripture. Professors in prominent colleges and seminaries were becoming bold in teaching that the Bible contained many historical and scientific errors, but that this did not matter to the Christian faith. It looked like evangelical churches were going to follow the steps of mainline protestant denominations and drift into the sea of liberalism...keep reading

Accidental Saints

Challies reviews Nadia Bolz-Weber's book "Accidental Saints." I've read "Pastrix" and came to the same conclusions.
I read it because it was on the New York Times list of bestsellers. That is not only a significant accomplishment for an author but an indication that her work resonates with a wide audience. So I read the book. And, oh my.
Nadia Bolz-Weber is founding pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Denver called House for All Sinners and Saints. Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People is the follow-up to her memoir, Pastrix, also a bestseller. A tremendously gifted writer, Bolz-Weber is known for her storytelling, transparency, irreverence, and excessive profanity. In this new book she describes some of her encounters with grace and she does so largely by sharing anecdotes related to her pastoral and speaking ministries...keep reading

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Church Curmudgeon on Eschatology

Pro tip: Don't let the guy who really, really wants to teach eschatology teach eschatology.

Yup!

Sunday, August 19, 2018

The Church and the Olivet

Pretribbers are often chided for insisting that the church has nothing to do with the Olivet Discourse. There are some dissenters - e.g., Arnold Fruchtenbaum. I happen to be a possible dissenter. But some who "chide" want to make the whole discussion about the church. I came across the following statement by a popular prophecy writer of late last century:
...it is my firm conviction that the Olivet Discourse is written for the church, and that its application is to believers and not to unsaved Israel which, by definition, has no interest whatsoever in the New Testament or its warnings concerning the unbelieving nation of Israel.... [and so on] 
Wow - that's pretty emphatic! I guess that's the reason the disciples rushed to Jesus' side just before His ascension and asked Him when the rapture (Matt 24:31) would occur (Acts 1:3, 6-7). Of course, that's what you and I would do - no? But perhaps they got it slightly wrong because they were confused (Luke 24:45).

Thursday, August 16, 2018